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Message:: [QUOTE="Numbers, post: 1915598, member: 11668"]Canada's experience was almost 30 years ago, when (1) metals prices were a lot lower than today, so the switch made more sense, and (2) debit cards and other non-physical payment methods were a lot less common than today, so people had less choice. As you say, in every country that's switched from coins to notes, public opinion has been against the switch.  What happens "after a year or two" is irrelevant if people have no choice at that point.  If Canada were to start issuing $1 and $2 notes again today, would most people actually prefer to keep carrying the coins?  I doubt it.   I addressed this in my previous post.  Both coins and notes have replacement costs eventually.  Both coins and notes have a "profit" (seigniorage) realized while they stay in circulation.  If you think that coins have only profit and notes have only cost, you're not looking at the whole picture.  Don't be distracted by which bits of cost/profit are reckoned to the Treasury and which to the Fed; the taxpayers get all the cost/benefit eventually.   More like, *now* is different.  Can you find a "major country" that's switched from a coin to a bill in the past decade?  A lot of them did it in the '80s and '90s, when metals were cheaper.  Nobody does it any more.  If we're supposed to follow other countries' example, let's at least follow an example that's current and not one that's thirty years old. (Besides, who do you think pays the "costs to businesses or banks"?  That'd be the same American "taxpayers" who allegedly save so much.  Look at the big picture, not just the Treasury's books....)[/QUOTE]

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